Edinburgh trams
Edinburgh's 2nd Generation Tram System.
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The Edinburgh tramway is now, finally undergoing preliminary testing in. The first phase of the project which consists of a sixteen-station, 14-kilometre (8.7 mi) link between York Place in New Town and Edinburgh Airport. Construction began in 2007, but was met with many delays and contractual disputes (which is one way of describing what has happened.) Only two-thirds of the line proposed at the start of construction has been built. Originally, the line was meant to stretch from the airport to Newhaven, but this was truncated due to a funding crisis. A second line running from Haymarket to Granton Square has also been postponed indefinitely. A further proposal for a line serving the Southside was not approved by the Scottish Parliament and not funded. The tramway is operated by Edinburgh Trams Limited, a company owned by Transport for Edinburgh.
The first part of the tram system was originally scheduled to open in February 2011. By March 2010, project delays had resulted in the prime contractor revising their estimated completion date to 2014, and by the end of 2010 only 28% of the infrastructure had been completed. The whole scheme was originally costed in 2003 at £375 million. A report issued in August 2011 estimated that the final cost of the truncated network would be over £1 billion, including £228 million of interest payments on a 30-year loan to cover the funding shortfall. As of October 2013, all work on the tramway's infrastructure has been completed, and testing of the trams has begun. The tramway is scheduled to open by May 2014. |
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